Critique| Gifted by J.A. George & GIVEAWAY

4.5 Teacups

**I was sent a copy to review in exchange for my honest opinion**

Title: Gifted (The Hayven Series 1)
Author: J.A. George
Publication Date: April 13, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
# of Pages: 273
Synopsis: There is no chosen one in this story.

Avery Gray was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and happened to make a decision that altered her future forever. It happens to all of us every day.

Avery is a size twelve university student with a penchant for dry humour, and she’s as normal as they come. Up until now, the biggest choice she’s had to make was glasses or contacts? At the moment, it’s stay and save, or leave and be saved.

Allow me to explain. One rainy afternoon, Avery had to make a choice: go through the alleyway or around it. Two possible options. One would have had her future continue on as planned, the other would ensure that her future never remained the same again. She unknowingly went with the latter.

But change is not always bad. Avery meets Theodore-James Connors, an enigmatic young man who takes her to Hayven, a city separated from the rest of the world, where only gifters – ordinary people with extra-ordinary gifts – can go. She soon finds herself in a close-knit group of friends she’d never have imagined herself in. Friends who are diverse in every possible way, from their ethnic backgrounds, to their personalities, from their gifts, to their life stories. Friends who make her laugh, who make her cry, who make her think and who make her…her.

However, change is not always good. The beautiful, golden city of Hayven has its dark side – Cliders. Gifters turned rogue, aka, Cliders are determined to aid fallen Clider, Madrina, return to rule Hayven. They will stop at nothing to make that happen, including harming those Ava has grown to love.

Again, Ava is faced with a choice: spend her days finding a way to inhibit Madrina’s return, or walk away. After all, she isn’t the chosen one. Yet, there exists a third option – rig the future itself and make it work for her.

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If I’m completely honest, I enjoyed this book much more than I was anticipating and I’m absolutely thrilled. For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you’d know that I have been in and out of a slump since late February/March. I’ve read a handful of books that I’ve really enjoyed, but so far most of what I’ve read this year has hit the mark.

Thankfully, Gifted hit the nail right on the head and has definitely helped to pull me out of my slump. I really liked Ava, and I thought that she was an extremely likeable and therefore relatable character. I think her reaction is perfect for the situation; if  I started hearing voices in my head, I too would try to play it off, and gradually think I’m going insane. She has average struggles with body image (no matter how much she tries to deny it, but don’t we all?), boys, and her “friends.” She deals with them like any other person in her shoes would (by talking to her best friend, having a good cry, or sleeping it off), and although she’s going through all of this stuff in Hayven, I think she manages to balance things quite well.

I didn’t care for her initial group of friends, at least once they started to show their true colors. I felt that something about Toni was…off, especially in the way that she seemed to talk Ava into doing things she didn’t really want to do (don’t even get me started about what happened at the club). I felt that Toni was whiny and inconsiderate of Ava, which really made me dislike her. However, with the way that the plot played out, and Ava finding a new group of friends that actually cared for her and she felt apart of, I completely understand why J.A. George wrote her that way. It made saying goodbye to them a whole lot easier. I felt like applauding when things finally clicked for Ava and she realized that Toni probably thought she was a pushover and Ava finally stood up for herself. She didn’t need the kind of friend who ignored her advice and thought only of herself in her life. Not when she had the friends she made in Hayven.

That being said, I really like the group of people Ava met in Hayven (I’m looking at you Theo, Baleigh, Peyton, Faye, Ollie, and Lucas). I felt like we got a good sense of each person’s character as Ava met them, and I completely understand why Ava loved being around them so much. They have each other’s backs (Baleigh is hilarious), and you can just feel the bonds that they’ve all made with each other. The only thing I didn’t like though, was that Ava going from friend group to the other completely was abrupt. There wasn’t any major falling out, and them not talking to her was for an extremely petty reason (at least that’s what it felt like for me).

I can’t wait to see more of Madrina and the rest of the Cliders because the backstory and build-up was incredibly intriguing to me. I loved learning about what had transpired a thousand years before and hearing about the aftermath of what had happened. The ideas of everyone’s different gifts is also interesting, and I can see how all of them will come together quite nicely in the rest of the series. I wish we would’ve had a smidge more action, but overall I really enjoyed the plot and I thought that the backstory was necessary to give us a good foundation/understanding for the rest of the series.

I highly recommend this book because it’s got a great cast of characters, an awesome start to a series, and an epic battle in the works. PLUS the author has been kind enough to send me 2 digital copies to giveaway to you guys!

Terms of the giveaway

1. Leave a comment with your name, favorite read of the year so far or why you want to read Gifted.
2. Click on the below to let me know that you’ve commented! (You will be required to enter an email so I have some way to contact you and send the prize).
3. Officially enter the giveaway here. Good luck!

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Anticipated Releases – Updated

So in case you missed it, on Tuesday I participated in Top Ten Tuesday and shared seven of my most anticipated releases for the next six months. Well, yesterday I was going through the ARCs I got from BookCon again, and found samplers that I completely forgot I had.

Ironically enough, there are three of them that really stood out to me, bringing my grand total up to ten! I’m really looking forward to these, probably more so than most of the books in my original post. Crazy, right?

Once again, these are in order of their publication date,  the covers are links to Goodreads, and if you hover over the cover, you’ll see the description (I hope).

Mini Critique | Demon Queen by Kassandra Lynn (Spoiler-Free)

3 Teacups

**I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review**

What I liked:

• Adriana’s loyalty.
• Keldrin’s loyalty.

What I didn’t like:

• I have no idea what happened between the first book and the second and third, but Adriana became the world’s biggest cry baby.
• The writing would switch from great to amateurish.
• Some of the plot points made me roll my eyes with how cheesy they were. They weren’t all that original.
• The ending – while most people were happy with it, I felt like it left way too many loose ends.
• The book was completely, and irritatingly predictable.
• Keldrin and Adriana’s relationship is confusing as all hell.
• Nothing that Adriana did made sense. She says she should’ve followed her own intuition a lot, and I completely agree. It would’ve saved her a lot of trouble.

Would I recommend? Eh, probably not. It wasn’t my favorite conclusion to a trilogy, if it’s even a conclusion. Like I said, the ending left so many unanswered questions, I feel like Kassandra wanted to give everyone the ending they wanted, and forgot to wrap everything else up. There could easily be another book.

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Mini Critique | The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry (Spoiler-Free)

I decided to try a new format with this review; instead of writing out full paragraphs, I wanted to keep my thoughts concise (hopefully) and write everything out in a bullet points. I think it worked out nicely. Let me know what you think! *cringes and hopes it goes well*

3.5 Teacups

Synopsis:

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start… until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Critique | Holding Smoke by Elle Cosimano (Spoiler-Free)

4 Teacups

**I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Synopsis:

John “Smoke” Conlan is serving time for two murders but he wasn’t the one who murdered his English teacher, and he never intended to kill the only other witness to the crime. A dangerous juvenile rehabilitation center in Denver, Colorado, known as the Y, is Smoke’s new home and the only one he believes he deserves.

But, unlike his fellow inmates, Smoke is not in constant imprisonment. After a near death experience leaves him with the ability to shed his physical body at will, Smoke is able to travel freely outside the concrete walls of the Y, gathering information for himself and his fellow inmates while they’re asleep in their beds. He meets Pink, a tough, resourceful girl who is sees him for who he truly is and wants to help him clear his name.  The closer they get to the truth, the more deadly their search becomes. With both of their lives on the line, Smoke will have to decide how much he’s willing to risk, and if he can envision a future worth fighting for.

Critique | Firstlife by Gene Showalter

3.5 Teacups

Goodreads Synopsis:

Tenley “Ten” Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she’s drawn to isn’t home to the boy she’s falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…

Critique | Demon Princess by Kassandra Lynn

This is the first post in my Sunday feature, Series Sunday! Every Sunday (or not), I will write a post about a new series I found, have started, or just want to spread the word about.

**I received a copy of this book from Patchwork Press – Cooperative via Netgalley in exchange an honest review**

Source: Goodreads

4 Teacups
Date Read: January 23, 2016

Read my summarized review on Goodreads!

This is not possible. No demon royalty has ever been summoned, much less reduced to call someone her master.

Synopsis: After the disappearance of her father and brother, Demon Princess Adriana must assume the throne and become the Demon King. However, on the day of her coronation, mage-in-training, Aldric, summons her into the human kingdom. The problem is, Demons can’t be summoned. Or so she thought. Now, she must find her way back into the demon kingdom while keeping her identity a secret, otherwise she’ll be at the mercy of her mortal enemies.

I ended up enjoying this book just as much as I’d hoped, if not more. It’s a fairly quick read at only 142 pages that you could easily crank out in a couple hours.

Since the book is so short, it’s hard for me to do a thorough review without possibly spoiling a few things. So, I wanted to start with a few nonspoilery thoughts I had on the book.

1. I loved the way the characters are written. I loved the good guys and despised the jerks, just as you want to when reading a book. I’ve got to applaud Kassandra.
2. That being said, I love the unlikely heroine in Adriana. The connotation with demons is that they’re the bad guys. In this book, it was evident that she’s just a victim of circumstance and I may have started disliking the humans a little.
3. Keldrin is totally swoon worthy. Look out book boyfriends! You’ve got a new one moving in.
4. I liked the idea behind the plot with mages, demons, and summon beasts. It’s different from anything I’ve read (which usually deals with assassins, faeries, and witches).
5. Now, the reason behind only a 4 teacup rating is the writing in the first few chapters of book. It felt a tad stunted, so I found myself  myself struggling to get through it.
6. Another thing I felt was a bit odd was the fact that her brother and father’s disappearance isn’t really talked about that much.
7. This also goes for Adriana’s own disappearance. I didn’t feel a sense of urgency to get her back from anyone in her kingdom.

That’s it for the nonspoilery section. If you want to know more, keep reading!